My present research focuses on the experimental investigation of the electronic structure and properties of quantum electron matter and emergent materials. Our aim is to understand the surprising behaviour of low dimensional and strongly interacting electronic systems, via direct, spectroscopic interrogation of the energy, momentum and spatial distributions of the electronic system. Our current focus includes unconventional superconductors such as the HTSC cuptrates, Fe pnictides and topological superconductors, transition oxides and their heterointerfaces, as well as topological insulators. These are being studied using angle-resolved photoemission, soft X-ray absorption and dichroism, hard x-ray photoemission, coherent soft X-ray lensless imaging and STM/STS. To enable these studies, we grow our own high-quality single-crystals of these materials, fabricate our own 1D nanostructures in ultrahigh vacuum and collaborate with leading thin film growth laboratories, both in the Netherlands and abroad.
The systems we work on are at the forefront of fundamental solid state physics research, but also possess potential for eventual application in future technologies connected to energy (superconductors), spintronics (topological insulators, magnetoresistive systems) and nanoscience (1D systems, oxide heterointerfaces).
The QMat group, together with Prof. Tom Gregorkiewicz & Dr. Katrina Dohnalova's Optoelectronic / Nanophotonic Materials activities, forms the Hard Condensed Matter research cluster in WZI-IoP.
Research staff are Anne de Visser, Yingkai Huang, Erik van Heumen, Hermann Dürr & myself. Hermann Dürr is 'professor by special appointment' at the UvA, his main affiliation being at the SIMES institute at SLAC near Stanford.
At present the group in Amsterdam comprises seven PhD researchers and two postdoctoral researchers, as well as three final-year MSc students. At SIMES there is also one young researcher working with Prof. Dürr's group, who will get his PhD's from the UvA.
Our research is supported by the physics part of the Dutch NSF organisation (called NWO, the physics part formerly being FOM). Research support comes in the form of national research programmes:
and single-PI grants ('projectruimte') on:
In the recent past Erik van Heumen held his own NWO-veni grant on the iron pnictide superconductors. The EU also partially funds our frequent beamtimes at 3rd generation synchrotron sources such as HZB/BESSY in Berlin and the SLS at the PSI in Villigen, Switzerland.
I am co-author of over 150 publications in international, refereed journals and have given more than 135 invited talks at international conferences, workshops and at scientific colloquia.
For an up to date listing of my publications and their impact, see the following researcherID link: